Question
Is my credit score good?
I'm 20 years old and have building credit since I turned 18. I have a Student Visa Card, Discover Card, and Kohl's card. I am also a joint user on my Mom's Discover Cards. My Plus score is 734 and my FICO score is 735. I'm assuming the reason why I can't apply for Student Loans at a good interest rate or at all, would be that I have an income of $10k working part-time. So, I use my mom who has WAY more in income, but a credit score of 720. I'm wondering if my score is okay for where I am in life. I'm worried that my huge student loans ($30k federal & $15k private) will lower my score when I get out of deferrment. Of course, I plan on paying them on time and will probably set up direct billing for the discounts & convenience. Will this impact my credit score? I'm really responsible when it comes to paying my bills and have already calculated my student loan payments out, researched my starting income when I graduate, and basically all I can do now is graduate in 1 1/2 years and hope it all works out.
5 months ago - 1 answers
Best Answer
Chosen by Asker
your score is not bad, considering you have such a short credit history, but you may do better if you eliminate some of those cards. Having so many open lines of revolving credit has a negative impact on your score. Unless the joint-user status on your mom's cards serves to increase the length of your credit history, take your name off of them. As for your student loans, it's not the size of the loan that hurts; it's having so many open lines of credit. If you can find a good interest rate, I'd suggest loan consolidation, and make sure you keep paying them on time.
Source(s)
Thanks to parents' foresight, I had a 790 credit score when I graduated college (mom got a joint card with my name, never told me, allowed me to build a long credit history). When my loans came due (sixteen student loan accounts: 8 sallie mae and 8 USDoE), my score dropped to the 740s. I was able to consolidate at zero percent by taking advantage of "0% for 12 months on balance transfers" credit card offers, rolling the full balance to a new card every 11 months until it was paid off in 4 years instead of 10. The consolidation and resulting reduction of open credit lines instantly bumped me back up to the 780s. My current credit score is consistently above 800.
by WL
5 months ago
Asker's Rating: 